How unique should meta descriptions be?

[ericstites]

This is something I've been wondering for a while but can't seem to find any advice on. My website features ~60 different companies, each having their own profile page. When optimizing for SEO, how unique should each page's meta description be? Put another way, can I be penalized if the descriptions are all identical except for the company name I include?

Any thoughts, resources, or best practices are appreciated!

[ericstites]

Thanks, and I agree with you. The similar descriptions are because I'm not personally setting them each time, so I wanted to provide a template to other users so we at least have something custom for search results pages instead of the default text from the beginning of the post.

[GastonRiera]

True.
Also, a good description helps to improve CTR. So, you may not be penalized by using all the same but a word different instead you might not be getting the best CTR possible.

Just try to be as much informative as possible and think what would you think as a Google Search User if you see several ranking positions with very, very, very similar descriptions?

Best Luck.
GR.

[SergioB1717]

It is not a problem that they are all the same

The problem would be if the content inside was exactly the same, there if it would penalize Google

[NickW816]

I believe the meta description is becoming less and less of a SERP factor (especially since it does not affect rankings directly, and you should write it to improve CTR). You should not be flagged for duplicate content for doing what you described with the meta descriptions in my opinion, just make sure the actual content on each page is unique and not duplicating other pages.